CA drought-free for first time in nearly 8 years
The National Drought Mitigation Center says California is free of drought for the first time since Dec. 20, 2011.
The center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln says Thursday that California experienced some form of drought for 376 consecutive weeks.
The center and federal agencies jointly produce the U.S. Drought Monitor, which reported Thursday that a very wet winter has eliminated drought from California and less than 7 percent of its territory remains in the lesser condition of abnormal dryness.
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Some local farmers say the severe rainfall damaged some produce.
“It’s too much rain, but it’s good. We need it too,” said Jerry Venegas. He owns Dates Are Us Factory in Mecca. The wet weather didn’t affect his crop, but he says other produce have been damaged.
“When they’re [produce] ripening, the water hits them and they go bad. Strawberries were so expensive and they weren’t even that good cause a lot of rain. It hurts lettuce, the vegetables, it all goes up in price,” Venegas said.
Julian Ailabouni owns a Mediterranean catering company and estimates the produce he purchases is up 30 percent.
“It’s very expensive now, especially the bell peppers, red, yellow and green. We use it for Greek salad and the lettuce is getting very expensive, onions and tomatoes especially,” said Ailabouni.
Only a small amount of territory remains in the lesser condition of abnormal dryness after a very wet winter.
The U.S. Drought Monitor says Thursday that more than 93 percent of the state is free of drought or dryness.
Tiny areas of abnormal dryness along the Oregon border and in parts of four southern counties amount to less than 7 percent of the state.
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The Drought Monitor says the conditions in the far south are due to very dry prior years, noting that reservoirs in San Diego County are at only 65 percent of capacity.
After heavy snow early this week in Southern California mountains, weather is expected to warm under influence of Santa Ana winds before another storm approaches the state next week.
